Biografia professionale

Marco Zenati è Professore Ordinario (Ia Fascia) di Chirurgia Cardiaca (MEDS-13C) presso l’Università di Trento (CISMED/DISI) e Full Tenured Professor of Surgery presso Harvard Medical School a Boston, Massachusetts, Stati Uniti d’America. Il Prof Zenati è nato a Verona e si forma in Italia con studi in Medicina presso l’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Roma e l’Università di Verona.

Dopo la specializzazione in Cardiochirurgia presso l’Università di Verona e research e clinical fellowship presso l’Università di Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, inizia ivi la sua carriera universitaria dove fonda uno dei primi centri di chirurgia robotica al mondo nel 1998 e opera il primo paziente negli Stati Uniti con tecnica di cardiochirurgia robotica a cuore battente. Fonda e dirige il Medical Robotics & Computer-Assisted Surgery (MRCAS) Laboratory, finanziato ininterrottamente per 25 anni con fondi di ricerca assegnati dal National Institute of Health (NIH) e dalla National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dal 2010 è Professor of Surgery presso l’Harvard Medical School, Direttore della Divisione di Cardiochirurgia presso l’ U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - Boston Healthcare System, e Associate Surgeon presso il Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MassGeneral Brigham (MGB). è autore di più di 250 lavori scientifici peer-reviewed ed è inventore di vari brevetti. Fonda nel 2005 la start-up Medrobotics Inc., per lo sviluppo del Sistema FLEX per la chirurgia robotica. è Associate Editor della rivista IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. Dal 2022 è Chairman della Study Section “Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences – BTSS” del Center for Scientific Review dell’NIH a Bethesda, Maryland.

Attività e interessi di ricerca

I principali settori di interesse clinico-chirurgico e scientifico sono: 

  • Cardiochirurgia del Paziente Adulto con particolare interesse per la cardiopatia ischemica; tecniche chirurgiche per la rivascolarizzazione miocardica con condotti arteriosi; tecniche chirurgiche minimamente invasive; chirurgia dello scompenso cardiaco; chirurgia delle aritmie; tecniche ricostruttive valvolari.
  • Robotica applicata alla chirurgia
  • Intelligenza Artificiale in Medicina
  • Sistemi di Sicurezza in Chirurgia
  • Processi Cognitivi in Task Complessi
  • Simulazione Chirurgica

Collaborazioni

  • STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation, MAICE Lab, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Roger Dias MD PhD
  • Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/ Julie Shah PhD
  • Hamlyn Centre, Imperial College London, UK/George Mylonas PhD
  • Cognitive Optimization and Relational (CORE) Robotics Lab, Georgia Tech/Matthew Gombolay PhD
  • Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University/Cameron Riviere PhD and Howie Choset PhD
  • SaberLab – Surgical Sabermetrics, University of Edinburgh, UK/Steven Yule PhD
  • Institute of Cognitive Sciences (ICES), University of Colorado Boulder/Theodora Chaspari PhD
  • Cognitive Robotics & AI for Future Technology (CRAFT) Lab, NorthEastern University/Gilbert Ye PhD

Pubblicazioni scelte

Zenati MA, Kennedy-Metz L, Dias RD. Cognitive Engineering to Improve Patient Safety and Outcomes in Cardiothoracic Surgery. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2019 Oct 17. pii: S1043-0679(19)30327-2. doi:10.1053/j.semtcvs.2019.10.011. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31629782

Seo S, Han B, Harari RE, Dias RD, Zenati MA, Salas E, Unhelkar V. Socratic: Enhancing Human Teamwork via AI-enabled Coaching. arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.17643. 2025 Feb 24.

Conboy HM, Avrunin GS, Clarke LA, Osterweil LJ, Christov SC, Goldman JM, Yule SJ, Zenati MA. Cognitive Support During High-Consequence Episodes of Care in Cardiovascular Surgery. IEEE Int Interdiscip Conf Cogn Methods Situat Aware Decis Support. 2017 Mar;2017 PMID: 28752132; PMCID: PMC5526347.

Arney D, Rance G, Rithy S, Goldman JM, Zenati MA. A Novel Interoperable Safety System for Improved Coordination and Communication in Cardiac Surgery. OR 2.0 Context Aware Oper Theaters Comput Assist Robot Endosc Clin Image Based Proced Skin Image Anal (2018). 2018 Sep;11041:39-45. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-01201-4_5. Epub 2018 Oct 2 PMID: 30729236

Kennedy-Metz LR, Conboy HM, Liu A, Dias RD, Harari RE, Gikandi A, Shapeton A, Clarke LA, Osterweil LJ, Avrunin GS, Chaspari T, Yule S, Zenati MA. A novel multimodal, intraoperative cognitive workload assessment of cardiac surgery team members. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2025Jul;170(1):287-296. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2024.07.050. Epub 2024 Jul 29. PMID: 39084333; PMCID: PMC11775230.

Harari RE, Dias RD, Kennedy-Metz LR, Varni G, Gombolay M, Yule S, Salas E, Zenati MA. Deep Learning Analysis of Surgical Video Recordings to Assess Nontechnical Skills. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jul 1;7(7):e2422520. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC11292454.

Mendu S, Mishra S, Ruiz VM, Fricks R, Harari R, Dias RD, Chaspari T, Zenati MA. Voice Acoustic Patterns Predict Quality of Interprofessional Team Behavior in Cardiac Surgery. Hamlyn Symp Med Robot. 2025 Jun;2025:17-18. PMID: 40693181; PMCID: PMC12277971.

Arney D, Zhang Y, Kennedy-Metz LR, Dias RD, Goldman JM, Zenati MA. An Open-Source, Interoperable Architecture for Generating Real-Time Surgical Team Cognitive Alerts from Heart-Rate Variability Monitoring. Sensors (Basel). 2023 Apr 11;23(8):3890. doi: 10.3390/s23083890. PMID: 37112231; PMCID: PMC10145698

Ota T, Degani A, Schwartzman D, Zubiate B, McGarvey J, Choset H, Zenati MA. A Highly Articulated Robotic Surgical System for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Ann Thorac Surg. 2009 Apr;87(4):1253-6. PMID: 19324161; PMCID: 2691642.

Patronik NA, Ota T, Zenati MA, Riviere CN. A Miniature Mobile Robot for Navigation and Positioning on the Beating Heart. IEEE Trans Robot. 2009;25(5):1109-1124. PubMed PMID: 20179783; PMCID:2826133.

Ota T, Patronik NA, Schwartzman D, Riviere CN, Zenati MA. Minimally Invasive Epicardial Injections Using a Novel Semiautonomous Robotic Device. Circulation. 2008;118:S115-20. PMID: 18824742; PMCID: 2832072.

Degani A, Choset H, Zubiate B, Ota T, Zenati MA. Highly Articulated Robotic Probe for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2006;2006(1642343):4167-4172. PMID: 20725532; PMCID: 2923469. BEST PAPER AWARD BioRob2006

Zenati MA, Bhatt DL, Bakaeen FG, et al. Randomized Trial of Endoscopic or Open Vein Graft Harvesting for Coronary-Artery Bypass. N Engl J Med 2019;380:132-42

Zenati M, Cohen HA, Griffith BP. Alternative Approach to Multivessel Coronary Disease with Integrated Coronary Revascularization. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1999;117(3):439-44. PMID: 10047645.

Cohen HA, Zenati M, Smith AJ, Lee JS, Chough S, Jafar Z, Counihan P, Izzo M, Burchenal JE, Feldman AM, Griffith B. Feasibility of Combined Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty and Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass in Patients with Multivessel Coronary Artery Disease. Circulation. 1998;98(11):1048-50. PMID: 9736589.

Zenati M, Domit TM, Saul M, Gorcsan J 3rd, Katz WE, Hudson M, Courcoulas AP, Griffith BP. Resource Utilization for Minimally Invasive Direct and Standard Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting. Ann Thorac Surg. 1997;63(6 Suppl):S84-7. PMID: 9203606.